LAGOS – Some agricultural industry stakeholders on Friday urged the Federal Government to use sustainable incentives in attracting and encouraging Nigerian youths into agriculture.
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They said that Federal Government’s efforts backed with land, financial and tools support for the youths who are interested in agriculture would contribute to boosting the ongoing diversification programme.
Mr Nnamdi Ifenkwe, Project Manager, Nissi Agro-allied Services, said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that government should use peculiar incentives to support young school levers to embrace agriculture and agro-allied businesses.
“Our young people who have just left high schools could learn poultry technology programmes in a matter of months to boost the production levels.
“In spite of the existing fish farming, a small number of Nigerians are still needed to enhance the business and the sector’s capacity for employment,” Ifenkwe.
The Chief Executive Officer, Oze Ltd, Mr Samson Igbafen, also urged the government to extend its assistance to other Nigerians interested in self-employment.
He also said the three tiers of government should use direct labours in executing it projects.
“Exploiting direct labour, especially in the construction sector option could be the panacea in tackling the nation’s unemployment challenges.
“If we can engage this pattern of tackling the employment within a very short time, the challenges of unemployment will be reduced to what is unwieldy,” he said.
Also speaking, the National President, Small Holder Farmers and Youth Network of Nigeria, Mr Bright Okwu, said that farming and livestock rearing remained one of the effective means of creating more job opportunities for the youths.
“In livestock production alone, there is dearth of the manpower needed to transform the farm animals and its byproducts.
“Given the demand of meeting the agricultural needs of the country and it large market, the unemployment situation will be tackled,” he said.
NAN recalls that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently announced that 349,343 jobs were created across all sectors of the economy in third quarter of 2014.
The NBS also said that 5,735 or 1.64 per cent were recorded in the public sector, 145,464 or 56.72 per cent were in the formal sector, while 198,144 or 56.72% are in the informal sector. (NAN)
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